A car owner's long wait for a repair has ended with a consumer commission ordering compensation after his car allegedly stayed at a workshop for nearly eight years without being fixed.
What was the dispute
The complainant, Kamal Kumar Saraf, had bought a Nissan Evalia in January 2014, paying about Rs 11.46 lakh to the dealer, Urja Automobile in Patna. He also paid Rs 11,322 for an extended warranty, but alleges he was never given a warranty card or bill for it.
The car was fine for years until it developed a starting problem. In August 2018, Saraf took it to the local Nissan service centre in Muzaffarpur to get it fixed.
He alleges the workshop opened the engine without asking him first, then said the engine had to be replaced at a cost of Rs 4.82 lakh — a claim the opposite parties dispute, saying he had given his consent. The repair shop kept changing the price and the reason for it, before finally landing on about Rs 3.91 lakh.
Saraf argued that his car had run only about 23,000 km, well within the extended warranty's 80,000 km limit, so the repair should have cost him nothing. Despite repeated requests and a legal notice sent through his lawyer, he says the car was never repaired or returned, and it stayed at the workshop for years while the company and service centre kept demanding more money.
He filed his case with the consumer commission in October 2020, and the company and service centre denied any wrongdoing, saying the warranty had already lapsed by the time the engine failed.
What did the commission say
The District Consumer Commission, East Champaran (Motihari) delivered the order that the dealer, the Nissan entities, and the workshop were at fault. It noted that the car had been left "in the workshop... for the past eight years," and that repairing a vehicle that had run such a low distance should have been done free of cost under the warranty terms.
Bench comprising President Girish Mishra, along with member Sanjeev Kumar added that this amounted to a clear "deficiency in service" on the part of the opposite parties, since a customer's vehicle cannot be kept waiting indefinitely while the company and workshop pass the blame around.
Since the car had been sitting unused for so long that it was unlikely to be roadworthy anymore, the commission did not order a repair. Instead, it jointly directed the dealer, the Nissan entities, and the workshop to pay Saraf:
- The car's purchase price of Rs 10,82,181, plus 7% simple interest every year, calculated from 1 September 2018 until the date the money is actually paid
- An additional Rs 25,000 together for the mental and physical distress he suffered, and his legal costs
The order gives the opposite parties two months to comply. Once the full amount is paid, they can take back the car that has been sitting at the workshop.
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